A Birthday of Twins
by SakuraLily
Summary: It's Hao and Yoh's 10th birthday and things happen! (Wow! I'm so good at summaries still!)


A Birthday of Twins

By: Lily

Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King though I do have most of the manga and almost all of the anime. :3 ::worships Hiroyuki Takei::

Warnings: Hints here and there. Watch out. Interpret hints as you will. Most people do anyway. A bit of insanity and written in a hurry. 

Began on 1:18 AM in the morning of May 11th finished 9:58 PM of May 11th. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAO AND YOH! ::does a dance for the twins and sacrifices curry bread, omelets and oranges as well as Bob albums:: 

A/N: This fic is written in AU universe. I doubt that Hao and Yoh ever shared a birthday together in canon. Things to know is that Hao reincarnated himself and instead of running off with the SoF, he stayed with Yoh. That's it basically. ^^; I think. 

A/N 2: Thanks to Wusai, Checkers and Crysi-sama for looking at parts of the fic. ::huggles them:: And you! ::points at audience:: Please read and review! Remember~ Reviews and comments makes a writer a happy person. A happy writer is a writer who's willing to write MORE. ^__^

~~~~*****~~~~~

"We need to do something." 

It was on the eve of Asakura Hao and Yoh's birthday when Hao had said these words. It was these very words that had started the whole thing, the whole ordeal that would follow. 

Yoh looked up from the Prince of Tennis manga that he had been flipping through and gave a questioning sound. Hao sat up in the top bunk (he had been lying down before), and hung his head over the edge so he could look at Yoh. 

He was grinning. 

It was one of his "I have a GREAT plan~ and you! YOU! My dearest, dearest twin, you are going to help me! ^____^" smiles. 

Yoh was already a tiny bit afraid. Just a tiny bit. …All right. So maybe a little more than that. 

"What are you planning?" he asked suspiciously, and closed the Prince of Tennis manga with a resigned sigh. Having been living with his twin for nine years now, he knew that whatever plan his twin had…it didn't bode well for someone. 

"I have plan. A plan to make Horohoro and Ren get along~!" Yoh swore that Hao had trilled the last and sweatdropped when his twin stood up on his bed. His cape, decorated with many yellow stars, billowed dramatically along with Hao's long hair even if there was no wind in the room. 

"…What?" Yoh repeated. Hao cast him a Look and sighed melodramatically. 

Hao was very fond of drama. 

His older twin leapt off the edge of his bunk and landed on the floor agilely. Hao was also very agile.

"I said and I quote myself…'I have a plan. A plan to make Horohoro and Ren get along~!' I have it all planned out!" he declared proudly and, once again, the cloak billowed. 

"Do you now?" Yoh replied doubtfully. Horohoro and Tao Ren. Ah. Yoh could sigh from just thinking of those two. In fact, he did. Out of all of their friends, not including Lyserg and his obsession with murdering Hao, they were a pair that made Yoh's head hurt. Why they never got along and seemed to go after one another like…like…a Ren out for Horohoro blood was a mystery to both twins. The two just seemed to hate each other's guts. 

Hao had said so otherwise. Not in anyway that resembled coherency, but it sounded something like "Madly in love with each other! Too stupid and too young to know! But I know better because I've lived longer!"

"Of course I do. Why would I say so if I didn't have a plan?" His twin tried for a hurt look. Yoh ignored it wisely. "Anyway, tomorrow's our tenth birthday right?" Yoh nodded and didn't say anything. He was busily ignoring the Holy Light that was shining on his twin. 

"So…Mother said we could have a party right? And we are. Make no mistake. We are having a party, plan or no plan involved. The point is we will also put HoroRen Plan #256 into action at the party as well." 

"That doesn't tell me what the plan is, Nii-chan." Hao cast Yoh another Look. One that read something like 'Don't interrupt me, Yoh. I'm TRYING to plot and be dramatic! You're RUINING the atmosphere. How dare you.' 

"The plan is to…play…SPIN THE BOTTLE!" Yoh fell over and actually, he fell off the bed. 

"…That's one of your stupider plots, Nii-chan." Yoh declared from the floor. Hao leaned over Yoh and pouted unhappily. 

"But…I wanted a chance to see them kiss AND I wanted to kiss Anna-chan!" Yoh was a patient child. He was generally a very easygoing child. Generally anyway. That was why he was restraining the urge to poke out his twin's eyeballs at the moment because he, Asakura Yoh, was blushing a bright shade of red. Hao Grinned his 'You naughty, naughty boy~ You were thinking Bad Thoughts weren't you? And HAH! I caught you thinking them!' grin.

"You are NOT allowed to kiss Anna. In fact, you're not allowed to put HoroRen Plan #256 into action. It's stupid, and Ren would refuse to play." Hao sighed. Whether it was because he was forbidden to kiss Anna, not that being forbidden and slapped into the wall had ever stopped him from trying, or because his plan had been disregarded, was unclear. 

"Well, we need a plan to make them get along. If there's going to be any bloodshed at our party, it will be caused by ME." Yoh noted that his twin was quite insane and his logic never made much sense. 

"…You're not causing any bloodshed at our party, but you're right. They need to get along." 

Hao ignored the first part of Yoh's first sentence because, after all, it made no sense! What kind of Asakura party would it be without a little bloodshed? Yoh climbed back onto his bed and looked under his pillow for his hidden stash of manga. He looked through one of them. 

"We could make Horohoro write a very cheesy love song and then have Ren tell him that he has zero talent so he should give up singing!"[1] Hao considered this idea as he paced around their small room, and shook his head. 

"That wouldn't work. It'd make Horohoro uke in the long run, and besides, we've already tried that." Yoh tossed away his Gravitation manga and searched again.

"What if we made Ren capture magical cards and wear weird costumes? Then Horohoro could show up and be his rival, fall in love with him and move to Hong Kong together?"

"I don't think that Ren would appreciate pink and Horohoro doesn't look good in green anyway." Yoh tossed away his Card Captor Sakura manga with a sigh. 

The two spent the next hour scouring their collective manga, but found no plans that could be applied to Horohoro and Ren. Hao was sprawled on the ground and staring at the ceiling, while Yoh was listening Bob music in an attempt to come up with a plan. It was more like he just wanted an excuse to listen to Bob music. They had given up a little while after scouring through all of their manga and a couple of fan fiction sites too. 

"Tell me again why we can't just get them drunk?" Hao said to the ceiling. 

"Because Mother wouldn't allow any alcohol and they'd forget in the morning if they made love confessions anyway. Or they'll just say that it was the alcohol talking and not them." Yoh replied as he pulled off his bright orange headphones. He heard his twin sigh so he leaned over the side of his bed to look at Hao. 

"It'll be all right Nii-chan! They'll get along eventually if they really do like each other. …Er. Maybe they won't get along, but they'll stop avoiding what they know. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow even if it seems like it's taking forever." 

Yoh Beamed and smiled his "Everything will work out in the end because –I- said so and if –I- say so, it's going to work!" smile. Hao smiled back slightly. Who was he to argue against Yoh philosophy at its best? 

"We'll figure it all out tomorrow, but we are going to sleep now." A Yoh promise was as good as done so the two went off to bed and hoped that tomorrow a plan would magically descend upon them. 

As it was, a plan did eventually descend, and though it was quite crude, Hao was proud of it. 

At approximately 7:27 on the morning of May 12th of 1995, an almost 10-year-old Hao leapt from his bunk bed and swung into Yoh's. He landed on his twin with a grin and a thud. Yoh gave a sound of 'Mmph. Gerrof ou me Cao!' Given that his face was pressed into his pillow, it was probably more of "Mmph. Get off of me Hao!" 

Hao perched on the side of the bed as a sleepy-eyed Yoh glared at him halfheartedly. It was impossible for a person to look angry when his hair was mussed in the cutest way. 

…Not to mention clad in bright green PJs with oranges and pineapples. 

His twin was radiating Happiness that could probably make people run away screaming. Hao was also looking too cute to be sane, considering the fact that his long hair was sticking up all over the place and he was clad in red PJs decorated with bright yellow stars, bunny heads and cats. 

"Good morning, Yoh and HHHAAAAAPPPPPPPYYYY BIRRRRTHHHHHDAY!" 

The force of Asakura Happiness and Joy was enough to blow Yoh's hair backwards. Maybe it was just the force of Hao's voice though. 

Yoh rubbed his eyes sleepily and considered going back to sleep, but with his twin like that…probably not. 

"You're evil. It's an unholy hour on Friday morning. Good morning to you, oh insane twin of mine and HAAAAAPPPPPPYYYYY BIRRRRRTHHHHDAYYYYY TOO!" 

Yoh had taken the chance to scream that back. Hao's hair was blown back and he fell off the edge of the bed. Yoh allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction and then allowed his twin to drag him downstairs where Keiko was already awake from the noise. 

A seven-year-old Tamao hid behind her leg and peeked out hesitantly. "G-good morning Yoh-sama and Hao-sama…! Omedetou tanjoubi…" She said squeakily, blushed a brilliant shade of red and disappeared behind Keiko's leg again. Yoh smiled cheerfully at her and Hao echoed that smile. Tamao seemed to sense the smiles because she squeaked again. 

Keiko herded the two smiling twins to the breakfast table so that Tamao wouldn't faint from blushing, then returned to helping Tamao with baking the birthday cake. Tamao scurried around the kitchen clad in an apron with a pink heart with mini white wings. 

It was cute. Very cute. 

Later on that day, the guests began to trickle in. The first to arrive was Faust, who had Eliza latched happily to his arm. 

Faust had a pair of thick reading glasses perched on his nose, he had been studying hard again, Eliza explained. [1] He was going to be a GREAT doctor someday! Faust was blushing by the time she was through praising him and complaining over the fact that he seemed to love the books more than her to Yoh. 

Yoh smiled politely and patted Eliza's shoulder, reassuring her that the only reason Faust worked so hard was because he wanted her to live well. 

At that point, Anna showed up. 

"And you'll work hard to allow me to live a good life too, won't you Yoh?" 

Yoh had leapt a couple feet into the air when he heard her voice. Hao chirped cheerfully and Sparkled at Anna. 

"Anna-chan~ Welcome to our party. It's a pleasure to have you here." He smiled his best charming smile, which Anna slapped off his face for calling her 'Anna-chan' and waited for Yoh to answer her question. 

"U-uh…Anna! Of course! I'll do my best!" The twin in question answered hesitantly and trembled under her glare, but managed a small smile. 

The next person that appeared was Ren, who merely wished Hao and Yoh a happy birthday, shoved the gifts into their hands and sat down on the grassy ground to glare at everyone. He clutched at his tiger plushie and seemed to mope. It almost seemed as if he was looking around for someone, but it couldn't be right? 

Well. It wouldn't have been right if Ren's hair hadn't perked up the moment that Horohoro bounced into the Asakura compound. 

The moment that Horohoro noted Ren's presence, he sprinted to Ren and proceeded to throw out insults. Ren replied to each insult with a sharp jab of his hair and an occasional whack with his plushie. Yoh and Hao looked at each other then Yoh sighed. This happened every single time the two met. 

Yoh dived into the middle of the fight, somehow managing to pacify the fight as he had done with many others. Manta arrived with gifts and Yoh immediately wandered over to chat with his friend, leaving Ren and Horohoro another chance to fight.

No one tried to stop them. There were some things that only Yoh could do and stopping fights like that was among them. 

A little later after that, a few of Hao's "friends" (They were more like groupies.) arrived arguing loudly with a Marco and Jeanne. The former waving his water gun threateningly [2] and the latter calmly radiating savior-like light. 

By 2:00 PM, everyone had gathered and was either threatening to rip someone else's head off or was chatting amiably. Food was set out because hungry children tended to be very scary children as Keiko had experience with two extremely healthy young boys. 

Everything was progressing fairly well until Marco shot at Hao with his water gun, which Hao, who was not very fond of water, responded by pouring a cup of coke onto Marco's head. 

Everyone fell silent. 

Yoh took a deep breath and said "Ne…Horohoro, would you mind getting Nii-chan and Marco some towels from the closet?" 

It was at that point, standing dripping wet, that Hao was Enlightened with a brilliant idea. 

"Ren, go with him. I'm not sure he can handle getting towels all by himself." Hao grinned brightly when Horohoro and Ren both shot him a glare. 

"I can take care of myself!" 

"Don't command me to do things!" Horohoro and Ren said at the exact same time. Hao waved his hands majestically with a shrug and gestured towards the house. 

Horohoro and Ren looked at one another and shot off towards the house like a pair of rockets. It was unofficially a race. 

Yoh eyed his twin warily and caught the mischievous look in his eyes, he was Enlightened at that moment as well. 

"Nii-chan, why don't you go after them and make sure that neither of them kill each other? You need to change anyway." Hao nodded and disappeared after the running duo. 

Yoh grinned at the silent people in front of him. "Now, where were we~?" The party resumed and no one questioned any part of the previous event. Though Marco attempted to make some form of protest, he was pacified by Jeanne. 

Meanwhile, Ren had won the race to the closet, and was currently gloating by producing an amazing amount of sparkles and smirks. Horohoro was valiantly attempting to ignore them by opening the fairly small closet to get the towels. That is, he stepped into the closet, and then Ren was shoved in behind him. 

The door closed with a loud, ominous CLICK. They were trapped inside the closet. 

Hao smiled and beamed at the closet door. It was being shaken and there were loud screams emitting from within. He ignored them and went back out to the party after changing. He was sure that the two could work out something if they were trapped in there for an hour or so. 

A water fight had begun by the time he had returned and progressed on until everyone was dripping wet. 

Not including Anna and Jeanne. Somehow, the two of them had managed to not get wet. Probably because Anna was radiating threat and Jeanne was radiating "I am the SAVIOR~ Don't squirt me with water! Or you shall be punished in the name of JUSTICE!" 

Hao had a theory that both auras repelled water. Yoh was inclined to agree. 

The sun was hot enough that the water soon dried away and everyone was happy again. Or as happy as somewhat mortal enemies placed in the same party could be. 

Horohoro and Ren were let out of the closet by a considerate Hao, who radiated innocence and claimed to know nothing about the person who had mysteriously shoved Ren. The pair had stopped fighting and was actually holding hands throughout the rest of the party. Anyone that dared to make a comment about how adorable they were was met with the sharp end of Ren's hair. That stopped many, not including Hao. But then again, since when had mortal danger stopped Hao from doing anything? 

Then Tamao's homemade cake arrived and was devoured quickly. 

"Thank you Tamao~" Yoh chirped and gave the pink haired girl and a wide grin. Hao on the other hand was more enthusiastic with his gratitude, he gave Tamao a hug. The smile from Yoh combined with the hug from Hao was more than enough to make the girl fall into a dead faint. 

Gifts were opened after the cake and Tamao was carried into the house to be revived later. The twins had received various gifts including a handmade hair band for Hao and a handmade towel for Yoh from Anna. She allowed a kiss on the cheek from Yoh and smacked Hao into the ground for trying. 

Ryuu had sparkled and bought Yoh a motorcycle model. "Every man deserves a motorcycle, Danna!" He had given Hao a bottle of hair gel, claiming that he knew hair and Danna-who-is-not also knew hair. They also received various mangas, books, action figures, jewelry and CDs from the other participants. It was nearing nighttime and everyone gradually left. 

Horohoro and Ren left together, holding hands. Hao told Yoh later that he foresaw happiness for those two and that they were going to go play in the park. [2]

Soon the only people that were left were Anna and Manta. Hao had disappeared sometime after gifts were opened and Anna found him on the roof, hugging the cat plushie that Yoh had given him. [3]

"You're an idiot." She said without preamble. Hao would have leapt out of his skin, but he had heard her climbing up the roof and so he wasn't surprised. 

"I thought you'd be talking to Yoh." He replied and hugged the plushie closer to his chest. He seemed distant as he stared up at the star-filled sky. 

"I would be, but he's talking to Manta and even if Yoh can't sense it, I can feel your angst a mile away." She snorted and sat down beside him. There was quite a distance between them though. Anna didn't trust Hao and she still didn't.

"Sorry." He offered with a shrug, but he wasn't really sorry. 

"Like I said, you're an idiot. You're going to end up hurting him." Hao was silent for a moment. 

"I have no choice. He believes what he does regarding these humans and this world, but that doesn't change how I feel about it. I can't change now." 

"That doesn't change the fact that you love him." Anna replied sharply and Hao paused again before laughing. 

"Don't be so jealous, Anna-chan. The way I love you is different from the way that you love him. My love isn't the love of dating or passion. I love Yoh for the sake of loving him." 

"I know that, Hao, but it's still a kind of love. So why can't you change for him?" Anna was staring below at Yoh, who was talking cheerfully to Manta about something or other. 

"I'm old and senile. I'm stuck in my ways. I don't love him enough. I hate humanity too much. Pick your reason. It doesn't matter because I have to do what I believe is right. The only way for this planet to survive is if humans are destroyed. There are always exceptions. People who try to understand shamans and people who try to save this planet, but it doesn't matter. There will always be exceptions, but the majority of humanity is nothing, but insects that deserve to die." 

Hao's eyes seemed to glow in the dark as he spoke calmly as if he was discussing the weather and not the destruction of humanity. Anna shivered from the feelings that radiated off of him. Then, suddenly, he was smiling again and the feeling faded away as suddenly as it had appeared. 

"I can't forgive them and you can't either. The only difference between you and I is the fact that you fell completely in love with Yoh. The difference is that you weren't completely gone before Yoh got to you. That is why you can give up your hate, because for his sake, you could give up everything." 

Hao rose from his sitting position. Anna said nothing in response, her hands curled up into fists. 

"And Yoh, Yoh loves everyone, but you are special to him. As is that human friend of his. That is the difference between him and I. He has people that he isn't willing to give up, people who keep him from deviating into darkness." Then, Hao climbed down from the roof, allowing Anna the chance to think over his words. 

Eventually even Manta and Anna left, then only Yoh and Hao were left. Hao grinned at Yoh and raised his hand for a high-five. 

"Mission accomplished! Fourth success!" He was referring to the success of getting Horohoro and Ren together. It was a long tradition between the twins to somehow work out the problems of the people around them on their birthday. One big success at a time. Yoh considered it one of their sacred duties to help people and no one had the heart to tell him otherwise. 

"Next year, it'll be forcing Lyserg and you to get along." Yoh Beamed at Hao as the latter stared at him with something that resembled horror, but that couldn't happen right? Not Hao! 

"If you lock me into a closet with Whiny Brat, I swear that someone's Bob CDs will have to meet an unfortunate end of becoming a pile of ashes." Hao said nonchalantly and a tiny flame appeared in the middle of his palm. 

Yoh Smiled a Hao Smile. A slow dangerous smile that implied much death and pain.  

"Well. Someone's star-cape will just have to DISAPPEAR won't it?" 

"…" said Hao. 

Yoh allowed Hao to stew for a moment and then gave his twin a big Asakura hug. 

"Happy Birthday Nii-chan." 

"Omedetou tanjoubi, Ototo." Hao replied.  
  


And for a moment in time, the universe settled into a moment of peace and everything was good. It was only a little moment of peace and no one even noticed it, but still, everything was good. It'd all work out in the end after all. 

~~~Owari~~~

Notes:

[1] Young!Faust had a big pair of swirly glasses when he was young. :D I assume it was because he spent so much time reading and studying to become a doctor. Well. He eventually grew out of being an ugly duckling into a somewhat bishie. …Even if he's 30 + years old.

[2] Chibi!Marco waving a squirt gun was inspired by CTR-sama's Easter fic. :D Go read it if you haven't!

[3] Cat!Plushie actually looks like Matamune and that idea was stolen from Crysi-sama's Hao and Yoh b-day fic. That fic is good. :O GO READ IT! 

Finally~ Thanks for reading. ^__^ Please review now! Don't be afraid to tell me where I made my mistakes. ^^~ One can't improve if one doesn't know what's wrong right?


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